The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Tragic Career Ending Injury to 7 Figure Entrepreneur ft. Trey Toner
Sat, 22 Mar 2025
In this powerful episode of The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex, I sit down with Trey Toner to dive into his incredible journey—from being a Division 1 football player with a promising career to facing a life-changing back injury that ended his dreams on the field. But instead of letting his setback define him, Trey turned his pain into purpose, building a 7-figure business and proving that resilience and mindset are everything.🔥 In this episode, we cover:✅ How Trey overcame a devastating career-ending injury✅ The mindset shift that helped him go from rock bottom to success✅ Lessons from sports that apply to winning in business✅ The habits of a 7-figure entrepreneur✅ How to turn setbacks into your biggest advantage💬 What’s the biggest challenge you’ve turned into an opportunity? Drop a comment below!📌 Subscribe for more real conversations on resilience, success, and entrepreneurship!👍 Like, comment, and share if this episode inspired you!CHECK OUT TREY: https://www.instagram.com/thetreytoner3/?hl=en“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com
Chapter 1: Who is Trey Toner and what is his story?
I'm your host, Paul Alex. And today we're gonna be talking to one of the youngest sales entrepreneurs in the online space. He goes by the name of Trey Toner. Trey, if you guys didn't know, was a Division I football player out of Texas. Yes, for all my football fans, you guys are gonna love this story. But also, it's so inspirational, guys, because he took a critical incident of breaking his back
to going ahead and going full-time as an entrepreneur, that he's been able to help companies grow to multiple eight figures, generating a total of $70 million in revenue. Trey, how you doing, my man?
I'm doing great, man. It's hard to have a bad day in Miami.
Yeah, dude, dude. So how long have you been in Miami now?
Just over a week now. So just over a week, yeah.
How are you liking it, bro?
Look, I came from San Diego, so I was thinking it was going to be like a little similar vibe. Everyone's like, hey, you got to learn Spanish when you come to Miami. I'm like, dude, I'm coming from San Diego. I'm going to be good. It's a completely different world out here. Everything's bigger. Everything's better. Everything's moving faster, too.
Dude, I always tell people like Miami is like the United States, but it's also little South America with the amount of mopeds and stuff going around. I'm just like, I feel like I'm in like Cuba or something. No, absolutely, dude. So. Brother, you know, the level of podcast, we always like to inspire entrepreneurs. We don't fluffy here.
Every guest I know personally, I've known you for the past almost four years now. Yeah. Since I went down in San Diego back in 2021. So with that being said, dude, you're 22. You're in Miami. You're now working with a brand new eight figure company. And you're looking to, you know, basically rocket, dude.
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Chapter 2: How did a career-ending injury affect Trey Toner's life?
Yeah, so originally I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. So if you don't know, winter happens up there. It's a really cold, cold city. Beautiful city, but there's not a lot of foot traffic, especially for athletes, because that's what I was aspiring to be. I was kind of groomed for the first 16 to 17 years of my life to be an athlete.
Luckily enough, I was blessed to be able to be born six foot five and decently athletic. So I got the opportunity to go play division one football down in Texas. So if you're not a football fan, Texas is like the hub. That's like where you want to go. That's where if you're playing football, it's like you're on a different echelon of like humans almost.
It's like gladiators is the best way to put it. So I went ahead, graduated high school early. I'm young. I'm an O2 baby. So my senior year of high school is when the pandemic broke out.
Oh, snap. Yeah, that's crazy, bro.
Yeah. So when the pandemic broke out, so everything got canceled. School went remote. So I was able to do all my high school work online. So I was able to go down to Texas early because graduation was canceled. Couldn't walk all that stuff because the world got put on pause. Yeah. So I went down there, was living the ideal dream, right? Something where now I was able to get a full scholarship.
I was able to actually get paid through stipend checks for being an athlete, which is, I mean, every boy's dream. If you're playing a sport, you want to get paid for it, right? So that's what I was living. That was my life. And get down there. And nothing too alarming. I had a shoulder surgery right away.
So I went ahead and they said I actually had a fractured humerus and my labrum was torn for over two years.
Wow.
So I thought I just had like a weird shoulder on my head bruise. Maybe turns out it was broken. So I was just like, cool, let's fix that. So Went ahead, had that surgery, and for the first time in my life, it put me in a position where I had a little bit of money set aside because I never grew up with a bunch of money. Always had a job, had my first job when I was 13 years old.
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Chapter 3: What mindset shift helped Trey Toner become successful?
Wow.
And I'm sitting there. I feel something pinched. I'm just like, that's not good. There's a problem.
um i'm just lucky to be in the position where i met where i was still young and able-bodied right that was to happen to me later down life it would be a lot worse than it was uh but through through an operation and then through a lot of physical therapy i'm able to to get up and be moving around again and that was your first year in division one football yep my freshman season yeah my true freshman season so dude at that time did you have aspirations to go to like the nfl
Absolutely. That was the whole point. That's what I was bred to be. That was my identity not only as a student or as an 18-year-old, but also as a grown man. That's everything I've ever aspired to be because not only was I in love with the game, but I viewed it as an entrepreneur. And I understand that more now that I've been able to grow up a little bit and kind of expand my business.
But I had an entrepreneurial mindset about football. I wanted to do the best. I was never the most gifted physically. I was never the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest. But I took a technician's approach. So I would sit and I would do more film review than anybody else. I would have better technique than anybody else.
And those skill sets are something that can really transfer into being an entrepreneur. Because you don't have to be born great. I don't think that's a thing. I think people are born into opportunities that can make them great.
But every single person has a decision what they want to do So I was taking that craft of football that seriously to where it was my life So when my back broke, I felt like my life was over Wow.
Yeah, I love that Well, actually no to go back Emilio make sure you cut that off.
Yeah, I know So love that for you. Yeah Okay Yeah, that's pretty hard, man. So let me ask you, I know you're pretty close with your mom. Yep. What was your mom thinking at that time?
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Chapter 4: How did Trey Toner transition from a broken back to entrepreneurship?
I can actually use my brain and my words and articulate myself to receive income. Well, cool. Let me just go all in on that. Because I know I didn't go down to college to listen to a professor who's making $40,000 to $60,000 a year teach me how to become successful in life when they're driving a Camry. It just doesn't make much sense. So I went ahead and I dove all the way in that.
And I went balls to the wall my first month. After dropping out of college, I made $3,500. For me, at 18, with a broken back, in bed, not being able to get up and live life, 3,500 bucks, I was like, holy shit, I cracked the code, I'm rich.
I was convinced. No, for sure. 18-year-old, make 3,500 bucks off internet money, that's unbelievable. That's almost like hitting the lottery. Let me ask you. So you were doing cold outreach and it's because we get a lot of people that view and listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple, and then YouTube that, you know, they're coming into entrepreneurship like newbies. Yeah.
So it's just like when you do cold outreach, what does that mean?
Yeah. So basically what I was doing, the term is I was an affiliate. Okay. So I wasn't employed with the business, but I would find businesses who have online offers, whether they're personal training, coaching, consulting, whatever the case may be. And I would be the guinea pig.
So what I would do is I would spend what little money I had to join these paid Facebook groups people who are looking for side hustles people who are looking to get in shape gym owners who want to scale their gym offers and I would go ahead and DM them hop on a phone call with them and Refer them to businesses that I was associated with got it just passing leads to their sales team because I couldn't get a sales job because who's gonna hire an 18 year old with a broken back with no experience.
Yeah, I
So that was my way to get my foot in the door. And for what most people don't understand is for me to make $3,500 a month doing that, I had three Facebook accounts. I would send over 150 DMs a day per account until my account got flagged. I would do that seven days a week. Out of that, I would get maybe a 10% response rate, and I was still able to convert enough leads to put food on my table.
So when you're looking to start your journey as an entrepreneur, it's not going to be glamorous right away for the majority of people. Because at the time, this is still when the internet gold rush just started. There weren't people necessarily crushing it how they are today. It was everyone's trying to figure it out as they go.
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Chapter 5: What strategies did Trey Toner use to succeed in online sales?
Yep. So the $3,500 for me was, again, just the proof of concept. Now it's like, cool, I can actually do this. and I just go balls to the wall. I take that same technique that took me from being a decent athlete to being a Division I athlete, which is just outworking everybody, having no sympathy for anybody, working more hours than everybody, taking a technician's approach.
So I did that, and then my $3,500 check rapidly turned into an $8,000 check. And then my $8,000 check turned into an $8,000 biweekly check, so now I'm making $16,000 a month. And it snowballed to the point where I was consistently making anywhere between $45,000 to $65,000 a month in just commissions. That wasn't me being a business owner. That wasn't me being a manager.
That was me closing fucking deals, making $45,000 to $60,000 a month. Then I went ahead and actually made a transition a lot of people want to be successful, right? Have you ever heard the term where everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die?
Yes, they don't want to give shit up I made the transition by myself as a 18 year old man packed up my car and moved to San Diego for an opportunity Within six months of me landing in that opportunity. I was still 18 years old as I turned 19 I took control of an eight-figure Inc 5,000 company as an executive.
Yeah, I
Only reason I was able to do that is sales. If I was not able to sell them to give me the keys to the business, it would have never happened. If I wasn't able to sell them on me adding value or being able to move up or tweaking things here and there, it never would have happened. But nothing was ever handed out to me. Nothing was ever given to me. My salary has always been zero.
I'm a performance-based individual. So what that means is how do I want to add more value? How can I get a bigger chunk of the pie? Solve problems. Everyone looks for a fucking handout. Well, if you want me to do this work, what's my salary? How many times have you heard that in your career?
Oh, absolutely.
So many times. It's the dumbest shit ever in my mind. Cool, you want to make more money? Get more responsibility. You want to get more responsibility? Solve more problems. And the problems that you solve, point them out. Let your good work be known. Don't be too much about it. Just be like, hey, guys, saw this, and I started implementing this, kind of slide it across the desk in a sense.
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Chapter 6: Why is learning sales crucial for entrepreneurs?
So that's following those four pillars of M's. But when it comes to the other executive side about learning how to manage an eight-figure bank account, things like that, obviously I needed guidance and mentorship when I first started. But now I'm balancing my own seven-figure bank account, and I'm doing it just fine.
Yeah, no, absolutely, man. I mean, you're crushing it, obviously. Like I said, I usually just invite people that I actually know personally, and I know they're the real deal. So with that being said, all right, so you're managing this team. It's an eight-figure team. How long do you do that for? Yep, so as the sales director, about three months. Three months. Yep.
Okay, so three months as sales director. What happens next?
I get the keys to run the entire company.
Okay.
About three months. So after that, what happens is I actually get the keys to run the entire organization. So now I'm the number two guy in the company. The only guy above me is the founder, right? So I'm being groomed to kind of take over the entire company. And the way we had the organization set up was in seven different divisions, right?
We had the executive division, we had HR, we had sales, treasury, delivery, qualifications, and public outreach. Now I'm managing over 100 employees at 19 years old. I'm the youngest person in the organization. The average age at that time was north of 30. So we got this 19-year-old kid, because guess what? I might have been a legal adult, but when you're 19, you're still a kid.
You still have a lot to learn.
Yeah, absolutely.
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